Sep 30, 2016

Observed on the first Sunday in October, World Communion
Sunday calls the Church to be the universal, inclusive Church. The day was
first observed by Presbyterians in 1936, adopted by the Federal Council of
Churches in 1940, and shortly thereafter observed in Methodist and Evangelical
United Brethren churches. Perhaps, it is fitting on this week, when we celebrate
the unity of the worldwide church, that we address one of the most important
issues in our world today—or any day—forgiveness.

Forgiveness is one of the Bible’s substantial subject
matters. For this reason, we address when considering World Communion Sunday.
Realistically, we all know that the topic of forgiveness is one that begins
long before the Christian faith developed in the New Testament. Indeed, in the
Hebrew Bible, almost from the beginning of God’s relationship with God’s
covenant people, the idea of forgiveness occupies a prominent place.

One memorable story recounts the haggling between Abraham
and Yahweh over the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 18). In this account, Abraham sounds similar to an
auctioneer. By asking for mercy on the evil city of Sodom, Abraham asks God,
“Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just?” To which the Lord
answers, “If I find at Sodom fifty righteous in the city, I will forgive the
whole place for their sake.” Abraham then barters with God as he might an
open-market hawker of merchandise. In due course, the divine voice declares,
“For the sake of ten I will not destroy it.”

Forgiveness is the key element.Genesis recounts that Yahweh cannot find ten
righteous people. The chronicle concludes: “Abraham went early in the morning
to the place where he had stood before the Lord; and he looked down toward
Sodom and Gomorrah and toward all the land of the Plain and saw the smoke of
the land going up like the smoke of a furnace” (Genesis
19:27-28).

Sep 23, 2016

In an article titled, All
I Really Need to Know I Learned from Noah’s Ark, I was amused, but also
struck by how the elements on the list below help how we look at life. So, you
decide which ones are worth pondering—and then ponder!

Sep 16, 2016

Perspective is a position or standpoint from which something
is considered or evaluated. Or, we might say it is the place from which we
observe or understand something. John Green wrote almost exactly four years ago
about the perspective of being college educated:

When I was in college, I remember
fearing that the dreary grind of adulthood would feature infinitely more
existential dread than frat parties had, but the opposite has been true for me.
I'm much less likely to feel that gnawing fear of aimlessness and nihilism than
I used to be and that's partly because education gave me job opportunities, but
it's mostly because education gave me perspective and context.

In a similar vein my friend, Tom Long, once wrote of this
kind of perspective (a story related in Play the Ball Where the Monkey Drops It).
Long was in a grocery store and it is important to know that for Long, grocery
shopping was nothing but a painful experience.

He was in a somewhat foul mood when he ran into a
couple of people who were actually enjoying grocery shopping. It was a mother
and her young son, and they had learned how to make a game out of grocery
shopping. She would read him the first item on her list—paper towels, aluminum
foil, whatever—and he would hear what she said, and race around the store until
he found what she needed.

Then he would bring his trophy back to her shopping cart and
place it inside. She would applaud him for what he had done, give him another
item and off he would go. They were
laughing and having a great time with it all. Well, you know how it is when you
meet somebody going down a grocery store aisle—you’re going to meet them
several times before you finish your shopping.It was about the third aisle over when it dawned on him that the little
boy had a mental disability.The mother
caught him staring at them.He said, “I
was just admiring your relationship with your son.”“Yes,” she responded, “he is a gift from
God.”

Sep 9, 2016

Our First United Methodist Church Fall Kickoff will be this
coming Sunday. It will include a cookout in the North parking lot, a live DJ, an ice cream
truck, bounce houses, a Connection Fair, and fellowship for all.

Our very own Arlington Police Chief, Will Johnson, will speak
in worship and we have made certain to invite law enforcement officers to come
eat and mingle with our congregation. The Mission Team will have a booth to sign
up for prayer partners with individual officers of the APD.

Being proactive to unite churches and communities is
something that we should all strive to be a part of—especially in these days
when tensions seem to run so high. Being upbeat and optimistic with respect to
our communities is something that we can all do to add our little part to the
harmony of the places where we live. This kind of attitude reminds me of a
story I once read about President Abraham Lincoln.

During the War Between the States, a young teenage boy
enlisted to be a soldier for the Union army. But he was not ready. He was much
too young, and when the time came for his first encounter with the enemy, he
became terrified and ran away. He was caught, arrested, judged guilty of
desertion and sentenced to be shot by a firing squad.

His parents wrote a letter to President Abraham Lincoln,
pleading for mercy, pleading for a pardon for their young son. Touched by their
letter, President Lincoln called for the facts and when he realized the
situation, he overruled the death sentence and granted the teenager a full
presidential pardon.

In his official statement explaining his action, Mr. Lincoln
wrote these words: “Over the years . . . I have observed that it does not do a
boy much good to shoot him!” (James Moore, When
All Else Fails…Read the Instructions, Dimensions for Living, Nashville, 1993,
p. 55).

Sep 2, 2016

As the late John Claypool reminds us on this Labor Day:
“When we offer up our daily work to the glory of God and the benefit of our
families and communities, we proceed to play our roles in the daily struggle to
make God more visible in the world and bring God’s realm into fuller
realization.”

Labor Day is a day to celebrate the work we do in the world.
Often, our work is one of the ways we define our lives and thereby celebrate
our lives. I suggest that this week, and in preparation for Holy Communion, we use the following prayer from Reinhold Niebuher, who offered it up to God
and for us:

O
God, you have bound us together in this life.

Give
us grace to understand how our lives depend

on
the courage, the industry, the honesty,

and
the integrity of all who labor.

May
we be mindful of their needs, grateful for their faithfulness,

and
faithful in our responsibilities to them;

through
Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

May this Labor Day be a day of thanksgiving for our honest
work in God’s Realm.

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P. S. Our
Lectionary Bible Study begins this Tuesday night with a covered dish meal at
5:30 pm and then the study will begin at 6:00 and end promptly at 7:00. If you
would like a lectionary sheet they are available in the office or you may get
one on 6 September 2016 from Rev. Kay Lancaster.